RFMS Changes to assist in implementing the “Differential Assessment Plan for the California Carpet Stewardship Program”

Reason for Changes

Taken from Differential Assessments (carpetrecovery.org)

California passed additional carpet legislation that went into effect January 1, 2020 (AB 729). That law requires CARE to implement a differential assessment on each square yard of carpet that reflects its cost to recycle.

Another provision of the law requires that we provide recognition of carpet products containing post-consumer (PC) content.  Initially this requirement will be reflected in the assessment being reduced by 2 cents/yd2 for any product, broadloom or tile, that has 10% or more certified PC content.

California Assessment System Option  

See details about this system option here.

The amount of the assessment is no longer set here, instead each color of a product will contain the assessment amount.

Please note: If you are using unreferenced lines, the assessment must be manually calculated. 

The fee is always stored as a per square yard amount.

Product Record Changes

To account for the differential, an assessment fee field has been added to the RFMS Product Record. This field will only be visible on product code 01 carpet, and products that have been selected in the California Stewardship Assessment System Option.

While it is possible for the assessment to be different at the color level of a product, if all the colors have the same assessment, this can be entered on the header level and it will be posted to each color. If a new color is added manually, the fee will need to be added. 

Importing colors from another record when creating a new product record will bring over the recovery fee.

Since the fee is at the color level, if it is different for the colors the header will not show a value, rather a message will show indicating there are multiple fees for the colors.

If the fee is changed at the header level it will override the individual color level fees.

Updating the Fee on multiple Product Records

If the fee were to change per category, it can be edited via the General Range Edit routine.

The routine will only allow editing those product codes set in the California Carpet Stewardship Assessment System Option.  Reminder this will look at the color level because the recovery fee could be different between colors of the same product.

Finding Products with specific Fees

An additional search parameter has been added to the Product Filter to allow finding products which have had the fee applied.

Assessment in Order Entry

This change will not affect how the assessment is implemented on Orders, Quotes or BidPro Estimates.  Only the source of the fee has changed from the system option to the color record. 

E-Commerce Changes

Product Catalog

Product Catalogs will now include the fee in the electronic file. 

Before importing any products with the fee, make sure the account code is entered for Recycling Assessment in E-Commerce>Utilities>Setup>Invoice Additional Charges. This should match the code set in >Utilities>System Options>Order Entry>Order Entry>Set Up California Carpet Stewardship Assessment.  This is not a new option.

A new tab has been added to both the header and the colors for Service Accounting Codes viewing the fee.

During import, any fee that is sent at the header is copied to the detail level (color) if there is not a fee sent by the vendor at the detail level (color).

For a while the fee will be manually editable on E-commerce records as not all suppliers may be able to send this information immediately.

Invoices

Electronically processed invoices will have the now have the fee in the detail level, but still show the total on the header.

Product Import Export (PIE)

The product import routine has been updated to allow entering the color level recycle assessment. The field is DI “Recovery Fee”.  The amount should be entered in square yards.

These changes will be available in RFMS Version 22.0 set to be released before April 1, 2022.